Yesterday was Day 7 (Mon), and I came to Mission Control to work on the posts. Hence, the helmets post. When I got home, I met Chris, an official photographer, and he told me about the underwater photography he's doing! It's so cool! Above is a picture of the camera he's using. It weighs about 20 pounds so it sinks in the water. It has a magnifying glass that fit The large lights are the flash, and the small ones are used to adjust the lighting for video. The one with the red ring around it can use red light. We can see red light, but because it doesn't penetrate very far into the ocean (hence the blue color because the green and blue wave lengths are the ones left), deep sea creatures can't see red light. So we use the red light to watch them without them knowing that we can see them.

So, there is red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light. We can see red light, green light, and blue light, but not infrared. Our eyes filter it out, the same way the sea creatures filter out the red light. Most of the time, our cameras are made to do the same. Chris, however, changed a Go-Pro so that it would see the infrared light but not the red. He has an infrared flashlight, so he can use that and the camera will be able to see it. Through this process, and a lot of math, he will end up with a photo that can show photosynthesis. This is because, during photosynthesis, plants reflect the infrared light, because it can harm them.

This information is extremely valuable to be able to look (basically) at the amount of energy in something.

He showed me how the camera and light worked by turning on the flashlight in the dark. To the naked eye, it was completely dark, but the camera could see everything that the infrared light shown on. It was so cool!

Love all the science you're learning sweetpea! So...thinking of your cat vision project, if cats went diving, could they see underwater? Love you!

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Loretta Helmuth (Nana)

6/27/2014 11:14:11 am

Interesting.....either Cris gave you a fantastic crash course in photography.....or you are a natural. You have been taking some awesome pictures that you have in your blogs. I think you are a natural. Cheers!

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My name is Morgan Helmuth. My dad is Brian Helmuth, and he is part of the team on Mission 31. I will be working as an embedded teen reporter during the mission, and will post about my experiences on this site! :D